So we reported already that Paul Allen, Portland Trail Blazers and assorted Allen companies had to pay $14.1 million to settle claims that they improperly took millions of dollars taken from Allen's Oregon Arena Corp. in the years leading up to that company's bankruptcy filing. That's the company that ran the Rose Garden, and whose bankruptcy led to Allen's lenders taking ownership of the arena.

But a couple interesting details from the exhibit that was attached to the bankruptcy trustee's quarterly report. First, the parties reached the agreement on May 1 -- about a month before the announcement that the Blazers and the arena were going to be jointly marketed. Could that have been the other part of the settlement that has not been made public?

Second, the entire $14.1 million settlement was paid by the Trail Blazers -- despite the fact that some of the money taken from OAC went directly to Allen, not the Blazers.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, this all ultimately comes out of Paul Allen's pocket, since Allen is the sole owner of the Blazers. But at least in terms of the books, the Blazers' balance sheet is the one taking the hit. Just something to consider when Allen and his representatives complain about the broken economic model. In this case at least, they chose to make the Blazers pick up the tab. For instance, when you read columns like this from Newsday. (Via Casey's Blazers blog).